Placement of cover seals on hard disk drives (HDDs) present considerable technical challenges. The cover seal should be pressed onto the drive with sufficient force to form a good seal, applied to avoid bubble formation under the seal. In bringing the pressure on the label to a sufficient level to place the cover seal, the pressure can build up at different rates on different areas of the cover. This can cause the cover to deform, which can be particularly problematic when the surface is located to a high degree of precision with respect to other components of an article being manufactured. Particularly in small form factor HDDs, components like the breather filter and the magnetic media are held apart from one another to prevent drive failure that could result from contact between them. Consequently, it is desirable to have an apparatus for placing cover seals that provides sufficient pressure to secure the cover seal, but that does not exert excessive pressure on areas of the drive that are particularly sensitive.